Of all the crops produced by U.S. farmers, corn is the crop that has the most economic value. Corn is utilized as livestock feed, as a basis for human consumption, as raw material for industry and as raw material for the production of ethanol. The primary use of farmer produced field corn is for livestock feed. This includes feed for hogs, beef cattle, dairy cows and poultry.
Human consumption of corn includes direct consumption of sweet corn and as snacks after extruder cooking, ground corn eaten as grits, corn meal and corn flour. Corn oil is also used as a high grade cooking oil, salad oil or in margarine. Corn is used in the production of some starches and syrups. Another important use is in the production of sweeteners used in soft drinks.
The wet-milling and dry-milling processes also produce corn starch and corn flour that have applications in industry. Some of these uses include building materials, the paper industry, textiles and starches.
The seed of inbred corn line CG00653, the plant produced by the inbred seed, the hybrid corn plant produced from the crossing of the inbred, hybrid seed, and various parts of the inbred and hybrid corn plant can be utilized for human food, livestock feed, and as a raw material in the industry.
The major reasons for the economic importance of corn and the large acreages planted to the crop are the hybridization of the corn plant and the continued improvement, by researchers, of the genetic stock that is used to produce the seed gown by farmers. This process has been on-going since its beginning in the early pan of the century. The average bushel per acre yield for the American farmer has gone from around 30 in the middle of the 1930's (before hybrids became dominant) to the present average of close to 120. While not all of this four-fold increase can be attributed to genetic improvement (availability of relatively cheap nitrogen and improvements in farming practices are two other components), a good share of it can.
Corn is easily hybridized because of the physical distance between the tassel (male pan) and the ear (female pan). The method of hybridization first involves the development of inbred lines. Inbred corn lines are considered to be homozygous, or, in essence, genetically the same from generation to generation. They are produced by taking the pollen from one plant and putting it only on the ear of that same plant. The resulting seed is gown, selections for uniformity and improved agonomic characteristics are made and the process is repeated until the seeds from the ears of the plants produce homozygous plants and the line is pure. A hybrid is then produced by crossing one inbred with another, genetically different, inbred. The crossing consists of taking the pollen from one inbred and putting it on the ear of the other inbred.
The seed from the crossing of two inbred lines is a first generation hybrid and is called an F.sub.1. The F.sub.1 of commercially viable hybrids have better yields, and other important characteristics, than either of the parents. This process is called hybrid vigor or heterosis. In succeeding generations (F.sub.2, F.sub.3, etc.) this heterosis is markedly reduced, making it economically justifiable for the farmer to go back to the seed company and obtain F.sub.1 seed each year. As a result, the hybrid corn seed industry benefits both farmers and producers of hybrid corn seed.
The invention of new inbred lines and of new hybrids is extremely important to the companies in the hybrid seed corn industry that have investments in research. Much effort is given to the research and development of these inbreds and hybrids. The breeding and selection of inbred lines to be used as both seed parents and/or pollen parents and which when crossed to other inbred lines produce F.sub.1 hybrid seed, which when planted, will produce plants that have characteristics that a farmer desires is a highly specialized skill. It involves many years of inbreeding, skilled selection, correct statistical testing, and decision making.